String Games Inquiry

Back in the spring Paul Allison invited me to hang out in an episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers on String Games.  On the show Fred Mindlin taught us string games and shared his string game stories.

I shared that evening about the finger knitting the kindergartners and I used to work on, and I just haven't gotten string off my mind ever since!  Finally this week at the UNC Charlote Writing Project Partnership Institute,  I had the opportunity to explore with other teachers some of the thinking I've been doing in the last few months.    On Monday as a way to find some common ground around the idea of inquiry, I brought some string, a little James Paul Gee and my daybook. Here's how we spent the session:

Getting Some String... Finding some string, tying

Writing into Session:  What do you know about string games what do they remind you of?

Learning a simple string game- The Saki Cup (scroll to page 14)

               Modeling
               Exploring, trying, failing, collaborating, sharing expertise, using resources, etc

               Explore links and videos

                                    

               Extending to other games/ideas based on expertise in room

Reading of and Responding to Gee, Good Video Games and Good Learning

GeeGood Learning                             

 Discuss in small groups: What elements of learning did we engage in figuring out a string game?  What about inquiry?

Closing: Learning Narratives

Peter Kittle’s unicyle video as mentor text (How does Peter narrate his inquiry?)

Writing out of session: 
            Personal narrative of inquiry experience.  What was it like to engage in string games    today?  Narrate your experience.